Archives for January 6, 2019

‘Juan Castillo’s firing after two seasons as the Bills’ offensive line coach was, McDermott determined, the necessary first step toward picking up the pieces to one of the worst collections of blockers the team has fielded in a long time. It’s far from the only move that must be made, though.’

‘“It’s been wonderful. I would love to come back,” Mills said of his four years with the Bills. “That’s on the organization, whether I come back or not. I just try to let my play speak for itself. My future is set every day I come out here for practice and every time I step on the field for game day.”’

‘First of all, it was really evident to me, early and quickly, that Sean McDermott was going to be a good head coach. When he was the Carolina Panthers’ D coordinator, we would talk (in production meetings before CBS broadcasts) and he wouldn’t say much. I admired that he wasn’t a self-promoter. I’d ask him, “Do you want to be a head coach?” He wouldn’t even answer that. “I’m just gonna do my job here,” he would say.’

‘I’d also take a look at Denver center Matt Paradis. He’s a little older than I’d like at 29, but he has allowed only one sack over the past two seasons, according to PFF. Paradis played in just nine games in 2018 before suffering a broken fibula. Before this season, though, he had started all 48 games in his career. His price tag probably won’t come down much because of the injury, but the Bills have plenty of money to spend. Signing Paradis and James would give the Bills two plug-and-play starters on the offensive line.’

‘In late December, McCoy lost a round when a state judge in Georgia refused to dismiss the litigation against him. But, with a legal maneuver, McCoy and a co-defendant in the lawsuit have now pushed the litigation to federal court. There, they can again seek dismissal of the lawsuit.’

‘In what ranks as a classic understatement, general manager Brandon Beane said Monday, “I’ve got to do a solid job this offseason to improve our offense. We’re not happy with a lot of things that happened.”’

‘In the final NFL rankings, it looks like it had a tremendous year as Buffalo ranked No. 1 in fewest passing yards allowed, No. 2 in total yards allowed, fourth in first downs allowed, and eighth in third-down defense. But, as we all know, points are what matter, and the Bills ranked 18th in that category, one of the main reasons being that they were terrible in the red zone as teams scored a touchdown 70.8 percent of the time they drove inside the 20, third-worst in the league.’

‘“NOBODY WANTS to be 6-10, I’m not a good loser in terms of 6-10. That keeps me up at night. It wakes me up awful early,” he admitted. “That’s a bit of uncharted territory for myself and a lot of the guys on this team, but it’s where we are and we have a lot of work to do. We are where we are because of some things certainly that we can do better, starting with myself, but also because of dealing with some things: (salary) cap management, drafting, not developing players, everything that we inherited when we got here.’

‘“Probably with Josh Allen. I think Josh Allen has the highest ceiling which probably everybody thinks cause of the size and the speed and the arm strength. But I think in five or six years you’re going to look back and go, “Man, he should have been maybe No. 1.” Sam’s probably right where he was at No. 2 and Baker’s a little bit further on down the list. I just feel like Baker’s reached his potential, maybe? And I know he’s a rookie and that’s hard to say, but he’s played in a ton of big games. He’s played a lot of football. You look at Josh Allen. Josh Allen has not played a lot of football, but Josh Allen is a physical freak. I mean he was their leading rusher and leading passer. How often does that happen?”’

‘Peters started all 16 games with the Eagles this season and will look to protect Nick Foles when Philadelphia takes on the Chicago Bears. If this is Peters’ final season, the left tackle put together a Hall of Fame career.’